When our less than 1 year-old Dell desktop had problems, I contacted Dell Support by phone. The tech support had me taking apart the tower, pulling out memory cards, and trying to read him small print that I couldn't read. He assured me it was a memory problem, and would send the parts. I asked them to send the repair person out with other parts as well in case it wasn't just the memory. Dell refused. The memory came a few days later, and was installed by them. The system worked for one hour, and then went flooey. Of course, their repair person had already left by then and had not run full system diagnostics. Days and time wasted.
We contacted Support again, by chat. This time, they had us spend another hour testing stuff, typing in long strings of error codes, running back and forth between rooms to follow their directions, etc. Then they tell us that we had to do a PC system restore and that would fix the problem. More time and effort wasted. The PC System Restore didn't work, and resulted in our losing all of our programs, add-ons, and data.
We contacted Support again, by chat. I told them I was fed up and wanted a replacement system and that I shouldn't have to do all this testing and work because I have a warranty for on-site service. Now they say it must be the hard drive, and I have to run some test that they say takes 10 minutes. It took 2 hours. The tech support didn't even hang around in chat. Just told me to come back when I was done running the test. It wasn't the hard drive.
I contacted Dell again by chat and blew up when they asked me to test the mother board. I refused and used their contact form to file a complaint and tell them that I intended to take action against them.
A Dell supervisor contacted me in response to the contact form. He offered to send me out a motherboard without me having to test it first and said that if that didn't work, he would work with me to resolve the problem. Yeah, right. I refused and said I want a full refund. He writes back and says to contact yet some other person within 21 days of purchase. It's more than 21 days since I bought the system.
A customer shouldn't have to do all the diagnostic testing for them. That's what I paid them to do by buying their system and their warranty for on-site support. A few questions on the phone or a quick easily-doable test might be reasonable. Requiring a customer to take apart a tower and run hours and hours and hours of diagnostics is not consistent with their stated warranty.
I am sending Dell a certified letter that I want a full refund because they breached the warranty. They will probably tell me I have to use their binding arbitration system. I wonder if I really have to. It seems to me that if they breach the warranty, they can't then insist I stick to their other terms.
Anyone have any experience dealing with Dell in small claims court? I'm mad as hell and not putting up with their crap any more.
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